Across the Washington area last week, young workers from Europe arrived in droves, heading for jobs at community swimming pools. Lugging duffel bags, they filled out forms, picked up safety gear and chatted in a variety of Slavic languages, eager to plunge into a summer experience of new friends, skills and culture.

“Now I can meet many people and see America,” gushed Anzhala Scherbina, 21, a petite student from Ukraine whose family spent $3,000 so she could fly here and enter a U.S.-sponsored work-travel program. “My parents say this will be a very good experience,” she said with a giggle.

The Obama administration is going to great lengths to make sure Scherbina and about 100,000 other foreign student workers are not disappointed. Last summer, the popular program, aimed at creating good will abroad, was rocked by scandal when students working at a candy warehouse in Pennsylvania staged a protest, complaining of isolation and overwork.

On May 11, the State Department issued rules that ban foreign students from jobs that could be harmful, limited them to light, seasonal occupations that are not likely to displace U.S. workers and required closer scrutiny of their conditions.

For college-age Americans, there is a high rate of unemployment among those from poor families and fierce competition among middle-class students to build résumés that show responsibility. So why, critics wonder, are fewer young Americans snapping up relatively easy summer jobs? In other words, why is Scherbina here?

“The glory isn’t there any more. A lot of young Americans just don’t want to be lifeguards,” said Douglas Winkler, whose Hyattsville company manages 225 pools in residential complexes and hotels. When his father started the firm in the 1950s, all the guards were local kids. Today, one-third of Winkler’s seasonal staff of 650 pool workers are foreign students, mostly from Eastern Europe.

“The international students are really grateful to be here and have a job, while American students have so many other activities and demands on their time now,” he said. “I truly wish we didn’t have to rely so much on international labor, but the bottom line is that we don’t have any choice.”

At the much larger High Sierra Pools in Arlington County, managers hired about 600 Americans and 900 foreign students for the summer. One reason for the lopsided numbers, they said, is the United States’ longer academic years and sports programs that cut into the summer, leaving the company scrambling to fill shifts.

“We have to staff pools from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and the Americans can’t commit to the entire season,” said Radac Kaczor, a manager at High Sierra who is from Poland. “For us to replace them with international workers requires a lot of effort. We have to find them housing and make sure they have good English and swimming skills. If we could fill our staff with 100 percent Americans, we would.”

Some immigration experts and companies that hire local pool guards are skeptical of such claims. They said that profit is the real issue and that foreign students are cheaper because employers get a tax break and are not required to pay Social Security or Medicaid benefits. Most foreigners are hired at job fairs in their native countries; recruiters offer them a package of terms and wages starting at the U.S. minimum of $7.25 an hour. They can’t negotiate or go “pool shopping,” as Winkler put it.

Top Opinion

Shovel ready jobs......just shovel those jobs over to more foreigners. I guess if he had a son he would look like a foreign exchange student. But wait!! I forgot, he must have been a foreign exchange student.

I know that....but we also can't forget ALL those who are out of work.....no offense, but many students can still live at home if they can't find work.....older folks can't do that, they are possibly losing their homes.....I see that as the more important issue of the two....and if the more important issue is being ignored, it's a good bet the lesser of the 2 is also......

"Foreign students are cheaper because employers get a tax break and are not required to pay Social Security or Medicaid benefits." That and the fact that the Obama Administration is pushing it are the real reawsons!

Skip the excuses and reasoning, blah, blah, blah. This country is in fiscal disaster mode. Take care of numero uno first, people. Employ Americans in American jobs. Time for generosity once we straighten out our economic picture. Where in God's name is the common sense in this country? Jeez, I swear we used to have some. Duh.

During prosperous times, there would be no problem having European students come over and spend the summer working here. But these are hard times. And I highly doubt thing are going well enough over there for any of our students to be able to do the same. I think we used to call this a student exchange program -- I don't know what it is now, but it stinks.

Since when are nurses considered domestic jobs, sounds like a bone head that wrote this BS. This inbred half wit President of ours is a total goff ball. He needs our help to move America forward. Lets give it to him, vote his useless azz out of office & replace him with Romney who has experience creating jobs. Obama has experience sitting on his worthless butt in the senate passing bills that should have been vetoed- idiot

Figures....Obama is for everyone but Americans. He continues to punish America for his warped opinion. of our country and how bad we are. How did this imposter ever get elected in the first place? DEFEAT OBAMA 2012.

Dumb Americans elected him that's how he got to be president. They wanted a "black" president & he fit the bill even if he's half white. He's a token puppet for bringing downour country. Americans allow minorities & actors to sway common sense. This guy is an imposter, liar, muslim loving dictator. Count our loses & learn, never again allow another BS teleprompter reader to get in office. Vote the bum out send a message loud & clear NO MORE NON-AMERICANS AS PRESIDENT !!!!!

The Obama administration has also given 3 million U.S. work visas to foreigners, plus Obama himself, by executive order, gave 300,000 work permits to ILLEGAL ALIENS last year. See:
http://www.sodahead.com/unite...

Obama & his croonies should be deported with all the middle eastern crap they let in this country. There should be a war on illegal aliens & middle easterners who cause more terror than Afghanastan in our country. Close the borders & keep ALL these rabble rousers OUT

Crazy but true. I can tell you that the local casinos fill hundreds of service jobs with employees from out of the country as well as out of the state. Eastern Europeans fill service as well as other occupations. They are paid less than the US workers. The casinos also offer a program whereby they provide bus service to and from an area in NYC (I'll leave it at that), so these employees can work for a week and then return home after the 5 day work week and start all over again the following week. I know a number of US workers whose hours were cut or they were laid off and replaced with these workers. It's crazy how unemployment is still so rampant, yet instead of outsourcing, they in-source. Where will it end?

These are sleeper cells. They will be assembled when they get the signal, then armed with weapons and ammunition. They will be working for TSA, manning checkpoints and guarding FEMA camps. Innocent students, give me a break!

{ At the much larger High Sierra Pools in Arlington County, managers hired about 600 Americans and 900 foreign students for the summer. One reason for the lopsided numbers, they said, is the United States’ longer academic years and sports programs that cut into the summer, leaving the company scrambling to fill shifts. } ......

Oh, so I'm to believe they simply can't hire non-students to do the work?!

Make a note of this all you 18 yr. old kids...next time your at the voting polls!! Obama does not have you in mind...Why should you have him in mind??!